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Half Life Lab
Seventh graders model radioactive decay using pennies, collect data from their model, apply scientific visualization techniques to their data and create animated models explaining the concept of radioactive half-life.
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How Far Away Is Saturn?
Students work together to create a scale model of the solar system. They write a descriptive paper and a paper comparing and contrasting the Earth to Saturn. They discuss their writings with the class.
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Go Glacier Go!
Students create a model of a glacier and observe how it moves. For this landforms lesson, students learn what a glacier is, build a model glacier and observe how it moves in a manner that more closely resembles a liquid than a solid.
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Space Science: Constellations and the Sun
Students review the zodiac signs and illustrate their movement using constellations on the wall and themselves to represent earth. Individually or in groups, they stand in the center of the room while a shadeless lamp is placed between...
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The Moon
Learners explore the relationship between the earth, sun, and moon in our solar system. They create a moonrise/moonset chart, perform a dance that models the moon phases, and create a Styrofoam model of the moon's surface.
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Kamchatka: Just Gushing with Geysers!
Students explore geysers. They identify the parts of the geyser and how it works. Students create a working model of a geyser. They write a brief summary about their geyser.
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Plate Tectonics Boundaries
Students discover how to create a model of tectonic plates and study the interactions of these plates as they slowly move on the asthenosphere. They see and experience what happens at each type of plate boundary and why there are certain...
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Cyclic Universe: Worlds Without End
Students compare and contrast the Big Bang Theory and the Cyclic Universe Model. They explain basic properties of the univers which make life possible. They evaluate ideas about the origin of the universe as to their scientific value.
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Testing the Caverns
Students build model caverns using paper mache or clay and bury them in a tray of sand. They test the models by dropping balls onto them to simulate an asteroid hitting the earth. They evaluate the effectiveness of a structure against...
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Sun Shadow Cycles
Students use diagrams to review how the Earth rotates around the sun. In groups, they use the same diagrams to explain how the sun shadows are produced and how they differ between seasons. They describe the Earth's rotation and...
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The Water Cycle
Fifth graders examine the stages of the continuous water cycle that exists on Earth. They observe a water cycle model that is set up in the classroom and write descriptions of what they see. As a class, they discuss models of the water...
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Predicting the Configuration of the Satellites of Jupiter
Students plot the positions of the planet Jupiter while predicting what the configuration system looks like from Earth. In this configuration of satellites lesson, students photograph Jupiter and its moons to record the motions of the...
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A SALT WATER-Y WORLD
High schoolers observe a model of the distribution of the earth's water and compare the relative volumes and percentages of types of water on earth.
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Heat Up the Floating Plates
Eighth graders research the connection between the convection currents within the mantle of the earth and the moving of Earth's plates. A connection to lessons at previous grade levels on the rock cycle and important background...
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Crustal Sinking
Students measure the rate of sinking of a test tube into a beaker of "glop", representing a model of the interaction between the Earth's crust and upper mantle. This task assesses students' abilities to make simple observations,...
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Our Water Resources
Learners build a model aquifer to study groundwater zones and water table formation. Students use the models to measure the movement of polluted groundwater.
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Flying Through the Solar System
Students create a model of the solar system out of candy. They write a book about their travels through the Solar System, beginning at age ten and reaching Pluto at age seventy.
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The Fault Line
Pupils use cardboard models of the North American and Pacific plates and sand to investigate what happens when there is an earthquake or movement along the boundaries of the plates.
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Plate Tectonics: Surface and Subsurface Processes
Eighth graders explore the geological process of plate tectonics. In this plate tectonic instructional activity, 8th graders design, construct and present a working model of a plate tectonics concept. This instructional activity includes...
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Space Science: A Scoop of Moon Dirt
Students discover soil characteristics and how it is formed on Earth and the Moon by examining local samples to a lunar simulant. They replicate the effects of wind erosion by scraping dry bread with sandpaper. Students use rocks and...
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The Solar System
Students describe the different bodies that make up our solar system, explain the place of our solar system within the Milky Way Galaxy and the universe, explain day and night and the Earth's movement, and describe the relationship...
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Topics in Environmental Science
Young scholars discover topics in environmental science. For this science lesson plan, students build a model to simulate the greenhouse effect and analyze and interpret data, especially the results of introducing pollutants into nature.
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Trouble in the Troposphere
Students create graphs using NASA data, compare ozone levels of several U.S. cities, analyze and evaluate the data and predict trends based on the data, and discuss and describe how human activities have modified Earth's air quality.
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Water, Water Everywhere
Students recognize that all of the water on earth cannot be used for drinking and that the percentage of ground and surface water is a small percentage. In this water lesson students identify ways to conserve water.